Lord of the Far Island (25 page)

here not a lot to tell. Your father married twice. His first wife was Effie and she had Silva. Effie and your father didn hit it off together and they used to quarrel violently. Your father was not an easy man to live with, obviously. He was not even fond of his daughter. It might have been that he was disappointed because she wasn a boy. I don know. In any case, he had little time for the child and could hardly bear to look at her.

oor Silva!I said. he noticed it and it made her very unhappy. No wonder she was unbalanced as you say.

hen Effie died of pneumonia and after a year or two your father went to London on business and came back with your mother. That seemed another mistake because she couldn settle down either. Then you were born and that seemed to reconcile them, but only for a little while. Your father was not meant to live peaceably and they quarreled and she eventually went off, taking you with her. That was a surprise. She left no warning. She just went off. So you see he couldn have been an easy husband to live with.

think poor little Silva must have been very unhappy.

wish we could have known why she left, where she was going, and indeed could have some proof that she was drowned.

f the boat she went in was washed up empty isn that proof enough?

t is to some, but you know what people are and there never were people more like those around here to see the unnatural hand even in the most ordinary happenings. They say that she was aken by the Little People,who, as you have gathered, are a supernatural colony who inhabit these parts. She was always ey,they said, and in fact ne of them,and they just took her back where she came from. Some say she was discontented with her lot and asked the Devil to take her. As you know, the Devil has played quite a big part in our family saga.

o you told me.

ell, youl hear people tell you that on wild nights they can hear Silva cries mingled with the sound of the wind and the waves. Some of the servants think she haunts the castle.

o you think she haunts my room?

He burst out laughing. hope I haven alarmed you, Ellen. My dear girl, wel change your room.

o, I shouldn want that. I like to meet Silva, so if she should alk,as they say, she be very welcome. She was my sister. That what I can forget. All those years of my childhood when I longed for a sister and had to do with Esmeralda, I really had one. I wish I grown up in the castle.

He leaned towards me suddenly and gripped my hand.

o do I, Ellen. Then you wouldn have to get to know me now, would you? We be firm friends already, but then we soon shall be.

A gull shrieked overhead as though he were mocking us. Jago did not seem to hear. His expression had grown tender.

We were silent for a while. I was thinking of my sister growing up lonely in the castle while I was the unwanted one in Cousin Agatha house. Those few sentences in the notebook had built up a picture in my mind. The unwanted child who was so poignantly aware of her aloneness. Nobody could understand that better than I. I had been singularly lucky to be blessed with a resilient nature, and perhaps having a companion like Esmeralda, who was meek and suffered so much more from circumstances than I had done, so that my lot always seemed better than hers. But poor Silva, living in that vast castle with no one in whom she could confide! I was sure my mother had been kind to her but she had run away when I was only three years old. Silva could not have been so very old then. How old? I wondered. Perhaps twelve years old.

Jago was surrounded by birds, for he was throwing tidbits from his bag. I joined him and shared his pleasure in the rising and swooping of the graceful creatures.

ren they beautiful?he cried. o you know those biggest birds weigh only a few ounces? Wouldn you like to fly like that, Ellen?

hat a glorious feeling it must be. I wonder why they make such mournful cries.

At that moment I was aware that we were being overlooked. I turned round sharply and saw that a man had climbed onto the plateau and was standing behind us. Jago had seen him too.

hy, it James Manton,he said. ood day, Manton. Are you working here?

We rose to our feet as the man advanced. llen,said Jago, et me present James Manton. Manton, this is my ward, Miss Ellen Kellaway.

hy, youe the artist,I cried.

He bowed and looked pleased, no doubt thinking I knew his work.

glad to meet you,he said. just rowed over here to make a few sketches,

o youl be painting our Island, will you?said Jago.

es, and the birds. This is one of the spots where one can get the best view of your Island. The light good today. Just look at the color of the sea.

We agreed that it was even more beautiful than usual.

ifficult to capture,said the artist, ut Il have a shot. I hope youe enjoying your visit to the Island, Miss Kellaway.

I said I was finding it fascinating.

He watched a bird soar away into the distance and then with a nod said: ood day to you!and went back the way he had come.

ow he is the one who lives on the Blue Rock Island, isn he?I said to Jago.

es. He lived there for a good many years. He paints a lot of bird pictures. He rather good with them. I expect that why he likes it here. He came for a few weeks, so the story goes, and he stayed here. He goes away now and then though. To London to arrange about the sale of pictures, I imagine.

et he doesn come to Kellaway Island.

ot since this quarrel with your father. Wee polite when we meet but we don visit. What do you think about getting back now? Are you sufficiently rested to row us?

don feel in the least tired.

He sprang up, threw the rest of the contents of his bag to the birdsnd I did the sameicked up the traveling rug and, taking my hand, ran down the slope with me to the spot where our boat was moored.

ump in,he said. l push her out.

He did so and I took the oars.

ou don need practice,he said. oue an expert oarswoman.

We reached the Island and tied up the boat.

efore we go back,he said, going to take you to old Tassie, the wise woman of the Island.

sort of lady witch doctor?

ot a bad description. Shel tell your fortune. I know you like having your fortune told. All women do.

We walked up the incline and came to a small cottage which stood in the center of a garden; among the herbs which grew there I recognized rosemary, parsley and sage; but there were plenty of others which I did not know. As we approached, an old woman appeared at the cottage door.

ood day to e, Master Jago,she said.

ood day, Tassie,he returned. e brought my ward along to see you. This is Miss Ellen Kellaway.

ood day to e, my lady,she said. I returned her greeting while I studied her. Her face was very wrinkled and her bright black eyes reminded me of a monkey, sharp and shrewd in her aged face; she wore a gray crocheted shawl about her shoulders and the black cat who rubbed himself about her skirts, with his bright green wary eyes, fitted the scene perfectly, as no doubt he was meant to.

We stepped into a room cluttered with objects and in which there was a faint pungent odor. The hearth was large enough to take a chimney seat on either side and the cat, who had followed us in, leaped into a basket and lay there watching us. I noticed the various pots and pans full of mysterious contents which stood on the table and the bunches of herbs which hung from the beams.

o you have brought your young lady to visit me, Master.She almost smirked. was what I would have expected of e.

he anxious to learn about the Island, Tassie, and she couldn know much until she visited you.

Tis so. Ie lived in this dwelling all my life, my dear. My mother lived here before me and my grandmother. It were her mother who had it when married. Moonlight Cottage it were, built in a night, though it have been added to since.

hat must have been in my great-grandfather day,said Jago.

She nodded. nd a man he were for scattering his seed far and wide. There be a saying on the Island that there scarce a family that hasn got the Kellaway blood in it somewhere back.

t binds us together,said Jago. hat have you got to tell Madam Ellen?

et me see for e, my dear. Come close and do e sit down near me.

She took my hands but did not gaze into my palms but into my face.

h my life, I do see much here for you. There good and there bad.

oesn that apply to all of us?asked Jago.

o some more than others.Jago was watching her intently and I was as much aware of him as of her. oue had trouble tragedy in your life. Youe lost someone close to e. That was a black time, and now there a choice for e. There two roads open to e. You must be sure and take the right one.

assie has special powers,said Jago. he is greatly respected on the Island.

ow shall I know which is the right one?I asked.

oul be guided, my dear. There one right beside e to guide e. You come home to your family and is a good thing youe done, for that where you belong to be.

The black cat rose from its basket, stretched itself and came to rub itself against her skirts.

see happiness for e, me dear, if you do take the right turning and I see trouble if you don. You facing the right way now but a little while back wasn so.

ou better listen to Tassie advice,said Jago. he girls of the Island all come to her and theyl tell you she never wrong. Tis so. A love potion theyl be wanting and I give it to them. They wants some young fellow to fall in love with them. You won want that, me dear. Your fate be settled. will be soon, for is right at hand.

Jago laughed, evidently pleased with her.

o on, Tassie,he commanded.

is for the young lady to take the right course and shel be happy for the rest of her days. Shel have fine sons and a daughter or two to bring comfort to her. She had a long journey but she home now.

here, Ellen,said Jago smiling at me, his eyes gleaming, and I thought: He is really falling in love with me!

The prospect excited me and at the same time made me feel a little apprehensive. I knew that his emotions would be fierce, for there were no half measures about him. He was young; he could not be much more than thirty; he was unmarried wondered why he had remained so, so longnd right from the moment I had seen him at the CarringtonsI had been aware of him physically.

Tassie seemed to have come to the conclusion that she had settled my future. All I had to do was to be guided, presumably by Jago.

She started to tell me what she did for the young people of the Island. l charm the warts off their skins, the sties from their eyes, and when they choking for breath Il give ease for that. There many who have more faith in Tassie than any doctor. And Il look into the future too. My great-grandmother was hanged for a witch. We don hang them now. People has more sense. They know a white witch from a black n and wee the white sort in our family. Pellar families we be. Long ago a mermaid were stranded on this Island and one of my ancestors helped her back to the sea. For that she gave the family special sight. And wee had it ever since.

o if you see a mermaid about, Ellen,said Jago, elp her back to the sea. Youl probably be rewarded.

is true,said Tassie. he seventh child of a seventh child and pellar into the bargain.She came close to me. can help you to lift a spell that be cast on you, to turn aside an evil wish. So come to me, young maid, if you be in trouble.

hat more than an invitation, I must tell you, Ellen,said Jago. t means that Tassie accepts you as an Islander.

He placed several coins on the table and I saw an avaricious gleam in Tassie eyes, for she couldn help watching and, I was sure, counting them as he laid them down.

We came out into the autumn sunshine.

ou must admit she gave you a pleasant fortune, Ellen,said Jago.

nd it seemed to me that she was well paid for it.

He looked at me sharply. ell, she deserved it, didn she?

f clients are going to pay according to what theye told, isn that a temptation to the seer to be overoptimistic?

don think she was about yours. In fact, I know youe going to have a good one.

on forget that rests with me.

ut youe a wise woman, Ellen. I knew it from the moment I saw you. But joking aside, she a colorful character, our white witch, don you think? She provides quite a bit of entertainment for our young. They think it a great adventure to visit her at night in secret to get a love potion which they can administer to a lover.

s she really the seventh child of a seventh child?

o she tells us and whether her ancestor in fact found the mermaid, Il leave you to guess. Old Tassie has always been there as long as I can remember.

nd people really believe in her!

ome do. If their wishes are granted they think Tassie has helped them. If they aren, they think it due to something they have failed in. It couldn work out better than that from Tassie point of view.

nd what about you? Do you believe her?

He looked at me steadily. like the rest. If I get what I want, I do.

nd if you don?

y dear Ellen, I always make sure I do.

We returned to the castle and I was preoccupied all the rest of the day thinking of this new aspect in our relationship and asking myself if it had really been there or I had imagined it; and when I retired to my room and lighted my candles and the shadows began to form I remembered Silva, and it seemed to me that her spirit brooded over the dimly lit room.

y sister,I whispered; and I seemed to sense a response about me. It was fancy, of course. Jago would laugh at me. He laughed at so mucht Tassie (and how much had he commanded her to say?), at the manner in which he had behaved in London both at the recital and the house in Finlay Square. The disconcerting aspect was that when I was with him I could accept these things in the light he wished me to; it was only when I considered them calmly that they seemed, at the least, exceedingly unconventional. But then he was unconventional; he was also unpredictable. I could not understand him; yet he had betrayed something during the afternoon. He did not want my friendship with Michael Hydrock to grow any more than Gwennol and Jenifry did; but was I right in thinking it was for a different reason?